The Condor's Swan
by Flamist.Rika
Summary: When a lounge singer's song is mistakenly taken as a 'love confession' by Venom, the symbiote responds by beginning to 'court' her in the only way he knows how. All done in the hopes and impression that she truly does like him, and he's more than eager to reciprocate her 'feelings'. Which, actually, she didn't offer.
1. Swan Song

The Condor's Swan

Chapter 1- Swan Song

They had found her by complete accident. Their Host had gone on a date with his girlfriend to some lounge that was praised by critics and they had quietly decided to give their more gracious of Hosts a 'night off'.

He hadn't shunned Them. He had welcomed them- with conditions, but still. He wanted Them. He deserved some slack and They were a bit bored anyways from the moment that Eddie Brock had walked into the dimly light and romantically-mooded lounge with his lady love in tow. They watched as he pulled out a chair at a quaint table for his woman and pushed it in with gentlemanly kindness before taking their own seat to look upon a stage at the end of the room; a heavy red velvet curtain blocking out whatever it hid and the symbiote used it's host's eyes to look about the elegant yet simple lounge- before the curtain began to rise and clapping arose with cheers from regulars, drawing the all their attentions- and they were not disappointed.

A woman stepped forward in a shimmering and slinky dress of gold, the spotlights on her making it sparkle that much more. Golden-brown tressed cascaded down her left side, bangs pulled over the left side of her face and over her shoulder as her lips parted into a dark plum smile while she sashayed forward to a old-styled microphone from the 1950's.

"Welcome to the Dark Sunrise Lounge." She spoke casually into the microphone and Venom fought against the urge to control Eddie's motions to follow the woman as she gestured to the band behind her, "These are the Moonlight Kids, and tonight I'll be doing a smooth jazz rendition of their song, 'Dark Antidote'." She said and Venom perked, as the music started up in a smooth rise as she started singing.

Singing about how even 'monsters need love'. And with her gestured to the crowd as she sang, Venom was positive. Without a doubt, she was talking about him.

The gestures were towards 'him' but really they were towards the back of the room, and she sang so honestly and passionately that Venom shivered inside of Eddie as the song went oh.

It was about loving whoever she was singing about, for who they were, monster or not, and despite their criminal actions and past, she loved him nonetheless; and Venom took it to whatever heart he had. He took it as a confession; one he'd never gotten before and one he's quite cherish hearing.

" _We accept, our Tweety-Bird."_ Venom purred darkly in Eddie's mind as the both of them continued to listen complacently to the woman's beautiful and alluring voice,

"Come to me, darling, and I'll love you." She finished her song and Venom hissed pleasurably in Eddie's mind that sent a fearful shiver down his host's spine as the woman smiled, "Thank you for coming and listening. We currently sell their album here, and my jazz rendition of it is also included. Please enjoy the rest of your evening." She said and turned gracefully, displaying the deceptively low cut of her backless dress and walked towards the band while the velvet curtain slowly descended in red waves towards the floor of the stage. Venom panicked a bit,

" _She was singing to us, Eddie! Tell her we accept!"_ Venom said urgently and Eddie replied in the same mental form as Venom was speaking to him,

" _She was just singing, she wasn't confessing."_ Eddie said dismissively and Venom stared at the stage, " _Besides, she's a lady. you probably have to court her."_ Eddie mentally told the symbiote as he continued casually on with his dinner date before they left and the symbiote questioned,

" ' _Court her'?"_ Venom echoed and tried to search his Host's mind for the word, finding just the word and nothing else connecting to it until his Host explained,

" _Like I did with my woman. Treat her nice, bring her nice things, ya'know, woo her."_ To emphasis, Eddie wrapped an arm around his girlfriend's shoulders as they talked and she laughed, leaning into him contently and smiling up at him sweetly.

" _...And you think that our Tweety-Bird will approve?"_ Venom questioned cautiously and was encouraged by his Host's positive though vague answer,

" _Yeah, all women appreciate it."_ Eddie answered confidently, and Venom waited until Eddie had fallen asleep before he took over his Host's body and prowled the skyscrapers of New York City in thought.

" **Treat her nice. Bring her nice things. Woo her."** Venom grumbled to himself as he sat on a rooftop, pacing back and forth a bit, before seeing a cat hop up onto the roof top too and he stopped.

It was a white cat with long-hair and blue eyes and it looked up at him as he stopped in front of it and pet it absently as he tried to think of 'nice things'. Like what? What types of things would a woman dressed in gold want? He looked at the cat that purred under his touch- and a thought came to him as a wicked smile slowly spread over his face and brought every sharp tooth into view,

" **Good kitty."**


	2. We Give Presents

The Condor's Swan

Chapter 2- We give presents.

Madeline woke up in her apartment the following morning, yawning tiredly as she stretched in bed and rustled the grey and black sheets of her Full-sized bed. The golden light of the dawn peeking through the sheer pink and purple drapes over the pair of rustic french doors that led to her small balcony.

Amid her slowly waking mind, she heard what sounded like a soft tapping on the aforementioned doors leading to the balcony, and she turned her gaze towards them.

She couldn't make anything out other than blurs as she opened her eyes, blinking to refocus as she got up from her bed. Her long white nightgown slipping to swish about her knees as she set her feet upon the plush white rug under her bed to keep the unfeeling coldness of the floor at bay, while she walked over and raised a hand to delicately move the curtain aside and see what had tapped her door- and when her eyes searched the left and right and found nothing, they lowered to the floor of the small balcony and instantly she felt nauseous.

A long-haired white cat with glazed over blue eyes, laid dead on her balcony- it's neck snapped and face holding the expression of what could be construed as 'horror'. A piece of paper poked out from under it's body with a message, it's dead weight used to weight down the paper; 'A present for my Tweety-Bird' in what looked like black permanent marker.

Madeline quickly covered her mouth and flew to her small bathroom, throwing up the toilet seat and painted the insides of the dingy toilet's bowl with the paint that were her stomach contents. When she finished she got up and turned on the faucet, rinsing out her mouth and spitting into the off-eggshell white basin, and pulling down her toothbrush and toothpaste from the medicine cabinet above. She vigorously brushed her teeth while in the shadows of the opposite building, the being that put the cat there watched with confusion at her reaction to the cat.

She mustered up the courage to slowly edge back into her own room, eyes fixated on the balcony doors as she picked up her phone from her little shabby chic nightstand next to her bed, and called the third number on her speed dial, "Mr. Evans?" She said meekly into the phone, "It's, um, Madeline from apartment 5C? There's a- ah- a dead cat… on my balcony." She backed up as the nausea crept back up her insides like a bad flu, and she only _just_ managed to keep it at arm's length by turning from the doors to continue her phone call, "Yes, I'll be home all day… Ok, thank you, very much. Yes, he has my permission to enter." She tapped the red button on her touch screen phone to end the call and crossed her arms over her chest, peeking back at the doors from over her shoulder. Her stomach growled in protest and she turned around and forced herself to quickly stride over to the curtains. Behind the sheer curtains were hung two larger and heavier ones, which she had forgotten to tie from their holders on either side of the french doors, before she left for work.

Right now, she quickly untied them and let them fall over in their creamy ivory faux elegance to block out the sheerer curtains and the cat on her balcony. The relief she felt was almost instantaneous as she sighed and went ot her closet to grab some clothes to wear and went to shower.

She stood under the hot water and washed her hair, quietly telling herself that it was already dead- not dying. It had already been killed. Like a mantra, she continued to fill her mind with the thought that it was already dead and flooded it with images of it's soft-looking and pretty fur while she scrubbed herself clean and washed her hair.

Madeline exited the shower and dried off then changed into her clothes; a simple t-shirt and a pair of jeans before exiting the bathroom as the maintenance man shut one of the french doors behind him, "Oh, I didn't even hear you come in. Thank you." Madeline said and the man nodded to her silently, holding a black garbage bag in one hand and a spade in the other, before leaving the apartment and shutting the door behind him. She glanced out at the balcony, walking closer and pulled back one of the heavy curtains.

The cat was gone and there wasn't a drop of blood on the balcony, thank god; but the note remained, sitting there.

She tied back both sets of curtains and unlocked the deadbolt to the french doors. She struggled to open them, which was unusual, and odd. But she tried pulling and pushing before putting her shoulder into the door's wooden frame above it's handle. With a crack, it flew open and she yelped as she almost fell onto the balcony from the sudden giving of the rustic door, but she caught herself on it; however, the gust of the door suddenly flying open sent the paper flying to the slight breeze before Madeline could catch it.

She stepped onto the balcony and put a hand on the railing as it fluttered seemingly towards her, before it moved completely out of her reach and vanished around the corner of the building, leaving her there alone. The woman turned her attention from one commodity to the french door that gave away and looked it over for why it had been so unusually difficult with her- and found her answer at the top-inside of the door. As she shut the two doors ot further examine her discovery, she shuddered in horror.

At the top insides of the doors, where they met, had been a small gap before; now, there were was a larger gap. Chunks of wood were missing and it looked to be scratch marks on the meeting insides of the doors; like something had been trying to pry the doors apart to get in. And it wasn't those 'a few days ago' markings- they were fresh. Perhaps even the night before. Whatever had made them had been strong enough ot crunch the wood inwards, and thus, make the side of the gap stick out enough to jam the door the way it had. Even when she looked down, the scraps of wood were still on the balcony, if not swept to the far side.

She went back inside and pulled the door shut as she lifted up her cell phone once more and moved her finger over it's glass surface to unlock it. Once more she called her landlord as she went about her day;

As she grabbed her purse and shut her front door behind her, she never once thought about how she left the french doors unlocked. And the sound of her key turning in the front door's own lock, overpowered the distant and soft click of the door to the french doors turning all the way. And her fading footsteps echoing in the stairwell were louder than the door from her balcony being gently pushed open.


	3. We Give Flowers

A/N: When I wrote the previous chapter, I remember imagining Venom watching with binoculars from a rooftop then lowering them and doing the 'what' meme post towards Maddie's apartment at her reaction to the cat.

* * *

The Condor's Swan

Chapter - We give flowers.

Madeline sighed happily as she walked down the street towards her apartment building. The sun was lazily setting and she had spent longer than she thought doing errands, but she had gotten more done than she had expected. However, she stopped a moment before the steps of her apartment complex as she struggled with the two large brown paper bags that her groceries were in; which occupied her arms. They were heavy and she really wished there was someway to get them up to her apartment without having to deal with the six flights of stairs between her and her front door, but at least it was better than being on the 8th floor.

As she fumbled to get into her own jeans' back pocket to retrieve her keys, the small victory of actually getting her keys was soured by them slipping out of her hand and into the sewer grate in the street; glitzy Eiffel Tower key-chain and all. "Crap!" She hissed unhappily and frowned at her misfortune before setting down the bags in her arms and going to her other pocket for her cellphone to make another begrudging call to her benevolent landlord. "Hi, it's Madeline from 5C again. I dropped my house keys just now...Yes, that'd be great- Could you buzz me into the building too? Thanks a lot- oh, please wait a minute before you buzz me up, I've got groceries. Thanks so much!"

With her mood mended, she hung up the call and slipped her phone into her back pocket as the sunset and the street lights came on while she picked up the other bag. She made her way over to the complex and waited for the familiar and staticy buzz before letting herself in.

As she disappeared into the building and the passer-bys on the streets dwindled while a warm dusk slowly set upon the city; another figure had watched from across the street. Crossing from one cement sidewalk to the other, they bent down and reached their hand to the grate-

A black goo-like substance, dripping from their elusive fingertips and into the sewer grate, smothering the freshly added set of keys until the fake rhinestones' false glimmer was smudged out. The goo stopped when it had engulfed the keys before retracting back towards the hand it had descended from. Quickly, it vanished as the figure stood up in their covering trench coat and identity-protecting large hat while they clenched their fist.

And when they opened it, the keys was in their black-gloved palm. Eiffel Tower key-chain and all.

 _They walked over to the apartment complex and tried every key until they found the right one; turning the deadbolt and the door handle in usion to allow a smooth and unquestioned entry into the small and dingy foyer of the apartment building. Waiting just long enough for the door to properly close behind them, before walking to the center of the room and looking up the ascending center of the stairwell in the building._

As they were doing this, Madeline had just finished thanking her Landlord once more, for letting her into her apartment and into the building, sighing in relief as she shut the door and set the heavy groceries on the cheap IKEA catalog table; an object of furniture sturdy enough to last for a while until she had enough funds to buy a proper table.

The paper bags were on their last legs, however she disregarded that observation in favor of using the bathroom and tunnel-visioned upon the destination. Not giving attention to anything else until she finished her business and came out- before stepping back.

The kitchen counters were cramped with roses. And so was her bedroom and her tiny dining room/ family room/ some space off to the side/ living room combo. "Oh my god." She murmured.

Bustles and bouquets of all colors of roses were strenuously contained within glass vases of a variety of sizes; abundant and overflowing, their heavy buds drooping from sheer lack of space. Reds, blues, pinks, yellows whites- even a few dark purples and blacks here and there. She had no idea where they came from, but she was more concerned about the variety of greeting cards, in a huge and chaotic piles across her floor in lieu of rose petals.

She bent down and picked one up, reading the red lettering and she shivered. A single message, scribbled legibly if not messily upon each card.

'She loves us, She loves us not'

And when she looked to her left into her extra space area- she gasped and covered her mouth.

'We love our tweety bird! We'd do anything for our tweety bird!' Was written as the focal point of the empty white wall in some type of red; whether it be paint or marker unknown.

A sundry of other messages along the lines of 'we did this for you' and 'hope you like them' were scribbled around the wall too. The door to her balcony was open and she looked back at the wall; wondering how she was going to clean it off the wall.

As she went over and scraped at it, finding it to be a some type of smear-able media, a set of keys was slowly lowered onto the table beside the forgotten grocery bags. Lowered gradually to reduce noise. Eventually they made it to the table before she looked away and the black ink that lowered them quickly retracted as she turned her gaze back upon the bags. Then began to slowly unpack them as she used sheer will power in an attempt to calm her shaking hands.

'Tweetybird' was the same thing written in the cat's blood when it was on the balcony. Perhaps it was a calling card or...the elusive stalker's nickname for her.

Before she could think much about it as she put the milk in the fridge, her phone rang and she shut the door before she answered it, turning her back to the kitchen, "Hello? Oh, Hi Mr. O'Brian." She said quietly and walked away from the kitchen, "Oh… so Jaz called out?... Is there anyone else you could call?" She asked and warily crossed her arms as she stood there, "It's not that, but this is my only day off in two weeks. If I don't have a whole day off, I won't be able to sing….A week off? Paid? ...And just an hour tonight?" After a long moment she lowered her head and said, "Yeah, Lisa gets back tonight. Ok. Ok, I'll um- I will… leave right now. Thanks." She said before taping the red icon to end the phone call and groan.

However, as she finished putting her groceries away and grabbed her things to leave, glancing around her house at the flowers and the mess, she decided to deal with it later and left the apartment.

And this time, Venom was sure to close and lock up everything behind him when he followed her out. Taking his host's form and the clothes he wore earlier to avoid detection as he calmly walked after her.


End file.
